Scary looking crown... male pattern baldness early stages?

[parasitictween]

So for the past week and a half or so my scalp has been irritated/tingly (which never happens) and I've really been obsessively paying attention to my hair whorl, which looks a whole lot thinner than I remember it.. These are just after getting out of the shower, w/ flash and my hair pushed down/out of the way as much as possible (it doesn't usually look THIS extreme, I was pretty shocked when I saw it ) I haven't really noticed more than usual hair loss in the shower or anything, so this whole situation kind of snuck up on me.

Kinda freaked out as I'm only 23 and have always had really thick hair. I bleached/dyed it a while back but didn't notice anything strange until now, and it's been chemical free for at least 3-4 months now. I'm also a really neurotic weirdo and have been going through a lot of stress lately, but I've never lost hair from anxiety before... No one in my family has a history of premature balding, so i just don't know what the deal is and am kinda getting spastic. Should I be freaking/where do I go from here?



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oh, this is what my hair looks like when it's laying "flat:"


hoping maybe my whorl/cowlick is just way more intense than i realized, but fearing the worst...

 

[idunnolol]

Ugh, hard to tell. Could be just a crazy cowlick. However, if you're certain that it didn't always use to be that crazy I would definitely see a dermatologist. They got the means to tell if it's male pattern baldness with certainty (or at least the best certainty you can get).

 

[Kirby]

IMO, the photographs are in too low a resolution and too badly lit to say conclusively either way.

 

[FHassan]

Does look a bit thin around that area, but honestly theres no way to tell via pictures when your hairs that long

 

[zzzzz]

It could be. How is the hair pull test? Easy to pull out hairs in the affected area compared to lower back of head?

Theres no reason to be worried though it would obv. be early stages, finasteride would stop any future loss if it is male pattern baldness

 

[parasitictween]

thanks for the responses I know not to consider any comments a professional opinion but it's still nice to have input. sorry about the light quality, I'll try to take some more photos soon. Going to a derm ASAP just to ease my mind, I'm a crazy worrier and it's only gonna torture me if i don't know what exactly the deal is.

I tried the hair pull test and it's just as hard to take strands from my crown as it is anywhere else: had to tug kinda hard and it stung a little. I also haven't noticed much more shed hair in the shower/bed than usual so I'm not sure if I'm just obsessing about something that's been this way for a while now, haha. I DO have a little patch of short hairs around my crown, but I feel like a lot of that is probably just because of the breakage that happened from my bleached hair--and they dont feel more brittle or thinner than the others to me, just less grown. I think a lot of the irritation/pain might be in my head--it DEFINITELY feels a lot more irritated and burning when i'm in peak obsessive worrying mode, but there is a little bit of real sensitivity, I think.

so yeah, derm ASAP. Any specific things I should look/ask for to get the best opinion? I've heard a lot of horror stories of people going in for 5 seconds, being assured everything is fine, and then shedding a ton right after. I'm located in chicago, if anybody knows the ideal place to go :x